The Trials Of Earth
by Southern
Summary: Please read summary on page one
1. Notes

Content Warning!  
  
This story contains mininal use of swear words that may be unsuitable for you to read. As a result, it should be suitable for most people to read (taken with a little pinch of salt). If you have any problems reading material of this type, please turn your browser around and look elsewhere.  
  
Quick Words Before Entry:  
  
It's a classic case of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) as far as the story goes, and it's supposed to be a mammoth work, as yet unfinished. I know that some of the plot elements in this story may occur in the same way as the manga, but I am at this late stage not in any position to change these plot devices.  
  
There is a poem The Three Dainty Destinies: The Armilett by Robert Herrick that I use as the prologue to the story, but I was unsure of whether to post it on ff.net because of copyright laws. In any case, there are copies of it to be found about the internet (where I found a copy of it and was moved so much as to add it to the story) and in bookshops. It's worth reading before starting the story, as it concerns the three goddesses  
  
  
  
SHAMELESS WEBSITE PLUG !  
www.seraphicd.tk or www.freezone.co.uk/angeleyeuk  
  
I only hope that people that enjoy the series will also enjoy the story; please feel free to write to me at info@seraphicd.tk for a medium to express whatever possessed you while reading. All I have left to say now is to get a drink and get reading!  
  
Chris Smout aka Southern  
  
Copyright stuff:  
  
I own the story "The Trials Of Earth" as a product of my creativity and my love for the series. I do not, however, own the characters and settings used in this story, as they are copyright of Kosuke Fujishima. This is only a tribute in written form to the series.  
  
I used to write under the name of AngelEyeUK, but after a few months, I grew bored of that name and have changed it to Southern. The same story (albeit only the first few chapters) occurs on Fanfiction.net under that name, and I only wish that I could remember what my login details where to get rid of that account. 


	2. TToE: Chapter 1

Chapter 1:  
  
Early morning at the Morisato residence. As the first rays of the sun broke out from behind the mountains, Keichii Morisato dreamed to himself. Sunday meant no work; at least his could get some shut- eye without having the thought of Chihiro kicking his arse for being late for work, even when things at Whirlwind were slow. In retrospect, nothing interesting or out of the ordinary had happened in a while. If you call ordinary living with three goddesses. He had time on his side for once. He could take Belldandy out or wash his bike or -  
  
A sudden crash from down the hall forced Keichii's eyes to open. He bounded out of bed and towards the direction of the sound, wondering what had happened. As he rounded the corner into the kitchen he found the source of the disturbance, his eyes widening in shock.  
  
Goddess Belldandy lay outstretched on the floor of the kitchen, a dishcloth held loosely in one hand, her eyes closed. Of course, it was no surprise that she rose earlier than Keichii to do the housework, but this had never happened before. What the - did she fall? He wondered as he approached her. He knew Belldandy had to sleep to recharge her power, but she hadn't been using her powers at all in the last few days.  
  
"Belldandy?" he asked as he held her head in his lap "Belldandy!?" After what seemed an age, Belldandy slowly opened her eyes.  
  
"Thank goddess!" he murmured as her eyes fell upon his own. With a little effort, she lifted herself up and sat cross-legged on the floor next to Keichii, a little disorientated. "Are you okay?" he asked.  
  
Belldandy groaned a little as she felt the injuries of her fall and looked around at the remains of a porcelain cup that she had been washing. "Keichii, I'm sorry - I broke the cup"  
  
Keichii smiled. Always thinking about others. "It's okay Belldandy, it's you I'm worried about". Sure, it was a real cliché at the time, but he really meant it.  
  
Belldandy's face returned it's normal, happy expression and she gave him a hug of appreciation. This took Keichii by surprise, and it took him a few seconds to put his arms around her. All those books on relationships never did help Keichii get any further with Belldandy.  
  
They parted and rose from the floor, picking up the pieces of broken cup from off of the floor. As Belldandy duly put the kettle on, Keichii sat down in a chair. He was shortly joined by Belldandy, who sat on the opposite side of the table, her eyes absentmindedly staring into space, as if she was thinking of something else.  
  
"So, Bell, are you okay now?"  
  
She flinched and looked up at him, wondering inwardly whether to tell him or not.  
  
"A few days ago, we got a phone call from Head Office." She began. Keichii's heart sank. Had the time finally come, for them to leave? He looked expectantly on.  
  
"Skuld and Urd have to return momentarily to do a routine systems analysis in Yggdrasil. They'll be gone a few days, I thought I'd tell you."  
  
Keichii gave a sigh of relief. At least he wouldn't lose them. They were the like a family to him. But why did she fall over?  
  
"But that's not what made you fall?"  
  
Belldandy hesitated before she continued.  
  
"I didn't want to trouble you. Keichii, this morning I felt something. Something evil, like a shadow that suddenly swept across the system for one second. I was afraid. Something's coming, Keichii, and I don't know whether we can stop it."  
  
That's what they said about The Master Of Terror, and look what happened there. What could be worse than Urd getting her evil side on? Well.lots of things...like Belldandy finding those magazines.or -  
  
"Don't worry about it Belldandy. There's nothing we can do about it now. If something happens, I'm sure it'll be okay. I've got a sixth sense about these things" he grinned, as if that would help a Goddess, whose problems are like that of a human multiplied by several million.  
  
Belldandy would have gone and kissed him for his reassurance, but Urd had stumbled into the room, a half empty bottle of Bud held in her left hand, and startled the pair. Sleep and alcohol were just the trick after a night out for the perma-tanned goddess of the Past.  
  
"Jeez, guys, don't you ever sleep in the morning?"  
  
"Morning Urd, did you sleep well?" Belldandy's face lit up, almost as if nothing had happened in the last few minutes, the idea of World Destruction was a mere annoyance in the Grand Scheme of The Lord.  
  
The kettle began to whistle, the tone rising to a shrill peep. Belldandy turned away from her sister momentarily as she prepared the morning tea, whilst Urd flopped into a chair. She laid the drinks on the table and joined her sister and Keichii, taking the chance to momentarily forget the prophesy of doom and gloom whilst Keichii turned on the TV, looking for the local news stories.  
  
"Yeah, same as usual, I guess" Urd replied, after slugging the last of the Budweiser and starting in the tea.  
  
"You haven't forgotten, Urd?"  
  
Urd looked up from above the rim of the teacup as she tried to comprehend the question over the static of the TV.  
  
"Huh?" Her blank expression denoted the need for more prompts.  
  
"You know, the System Debugging?"  
  
Urd's expression dropped as she reluctantly accepted that for one day out of 365 she would have to work. Funny how organisations exile their workers but still call on them when there's work to be done.  
  
"Damn it. Can't Peorth keep everything under control?"  
  
"Ah shuddup.you don't have to do the main debugging, sis"  
  
Skuld had joined the household at the table and began to eat some cereal, dressed in her goddess uniform. After a quick good morning to Belldandy, the youngest of the three goddesses busily tucked into a tub of Ben and Jerry's and debugged Banpei simultaneously.  
  
At the sight of what could be mistaken as a vat of ice cream disappearing in a matter of minutes, Keiichi went strongly off food for a few seconds as the TV static cleared and the news began to flash. Murder, rape, tax rise, less funding.the usual stuff. Terrible as though each separate story was, at least it wasn't anything on the scale of an Armageddon-esque scenario. Maybe Belldandy was wrong? He flipped off the TV as Urd finished her breakfast and headed off to her room, preparing herself for the trials ahead.  
  
"Hey Keichii, wanna see my new hammer?" asked Skuld, brandishing a shiny bejewelled Hammer. Skuld fuelled on ice cream with a hammer wasn't a safe combination, and if the slightly agitated look in her eyes didn't give away her enthusiasm for her job, it was the ease with which she twirled the hammer like a baton. Just the thing for sorting out bugs. Or for putting a dent in someone's head.  
  
"Err.nice hammer, Skuld" he stammered, backing away slowly. If it wasn't for Belldandy's intervention at that point, his day might've ended in the hospital.  
  
"Skuld, why don't you put your hammer down and get ready to go? I'll go make some lunch for you before you go. It'll be ready in a few minutes."  
  
"'Kay! Make sure you put in some ice cream, Bell!"  
  
As Skuld made herself scarce from the Kitchen, Belldandy carried out her word, as Keichii leant up against the Kitchen unit and watched her work, making and packing sandwiches and crisps. His instincts kicked in within moments and he began to help her out. He couldn't just let her do all the work, goddess or no goddess.  
  
"Do you wish you were going with them?" he asked her, as he carefully placed a bunch of grapes beside a bottle of beer in a cool bag.  
  
"Perhaps.I haven't been to Heaven in a while" she began, her eyes facing Keichii "But I'm sure that there's a good reason for why I wasn't told to return. Even if something does happen, I want to be by your side."  
  
Keichii always felt insecure when she spoke as if he couldn't live without someone else's help. It wasn't a normal relationship, that was obvious, but he still couldn't help feeling that he should be the one that would protect Belldandy. Even if he didn't have the power of Heaven on his side.  
  
"Yeah, well, maybe it was meant to be, so that we could do something together?" suggested Keichii. A cheap shot at getting some time alone with Belldandy.  
  
Her eyes shone intensely with anticipation. "You think so? But where would we go?"  
  
"I don't know, how about the - "  
  
"COMING THROUGH!"  
  
Skuld's voice rattled through the old timber of the temple as she carried her equipment in her backpack, various band names written all over it in Japanese. The hammer poked out of one end, easily positioned if it was needed for a speedy deployment. Just in case Keichii tried to get a little more "friendly" with her sister while she was still around to stop them.  
  
She eyed the pair suspiciously as they put the food in the backpack and looked at her, expecting a response.  
  
"There's some stuff in their for both of you, and plenty of Ice- cream" reported Keichii, as Skuld's mouth turned upward into a smile. "Thanks, Belldandy!"  
  
Happily she bounded out of the room and into the bathroom, ignoring Keichii's grumbling about him helping out as well and that he should get some credit.... Belldandy followed her sister as she started the teleportation program, the water whirling around the full bath in a spiral. As she stepped into the portal, she turned to see Belldandy for the last time.  
  
"And don't annoy Peorth too much, Skuld!" Belldandy called after her.  
  
"I won't!" echoed the younger Goddess' voice as she disappeared, after a flash of light and a slight sound of whirling water. She had gone. One down, one to go.  
  
Meanwhile, Urd locked up her room after dressing in her goddess outfit and passed into the living room where Keichii was watching the TV. She knelt down to his height to speak to him before she left, her robes draped over the floor.. He jumped a bit when she put her hand on his shoulder and she spoke in a whisper, into his ear as she sat behind him.  
  
"Don't miss this chance, kiddo. Don't let a good thing go, you'll be fine."  
  
Keichii looked embarrassed and then defiant at the femme-fatale's suggestion. "What do you mean, don't miss this chance?"  
  
Urd straightened up and headed for the television, her voice carried over the announcer's report.  
  
"You know what I mean, Morisato. Just have fun and be yourself. I will be disappointed if you don't act soon. See you in a few days."  
  
As she disappeared into the portal in the TV, Keichii leant back into the chair and sighed. A typical thing for Urd to say, but he couldn't deny it, he had been waiting for weeks for a chance like this. More time alone with his beloved Belldandy.  
  
If he could find something for them to do in the next 72 hours.. 


	3. TToE: Chapter 2

Chapter 2:  
  
Whilst two of the three goddesses of the Morisato household returned to Heaven for system debugging and a third stayed with a hapless human being trying to think a way to get closer to the said third goddess, another unnatural being, that should never be on Earth anyway if it wasn't for a certain trio of well-known Goddesses, was planning her latest attack into the Goddess Network of Yggdrasil. In her cave somewhere in the mountains near our hero's home, Demon Mara was putting the finishing touches to her virus program.  
  
"Hmm..this might just work."  
  
The thing about Mara was that she was a demon, and a very persistent demon at that. One of those people that never knew when to give up. But when Mara felt that she was on to a good thing to take over the world all in her Lord's name, there was no stopping her. Stooped over a large monitor and typing at the keyboard faster than Skuld pumped up on a vat of ice-cream, Mara's project was nearing completion. With the tap of ctrl + s, the program saved to her hard disk and floppy disk simultaneously and she eased back into her chair as the screen confirmed the backup.  
  
"At least that went smoothly."  
  
The problem about being exiled on Earth was the lack of Seraphic KK compliant hardware to use to interface with the Goddess network. Instead, Senbei had had to find her the most up-to-date Human computer system available to serve his mistress in her latest exploits.  
  
Windows XP.  
  
The job would have gone a lot more speedily if she had found out that the inferior software ran at half the speed of a goddess terminal and was prone to crashing, even after she downloaded the latest patches off the internet. Throughout the last month of work on the new virus, Mara had become increasingly more aware of the message "Windows has performed an illegal operation and has to be shut down." The inefficiency of Earth software was a real bore, but at least it was Senbei's idea in the first place, so she could kick his arse for making such a poor decision in the first place.  
  
"Ah, my mistress, I see you have finally finished your program."  
  
Senbei's crooning voice in a vague attempt to gain some favour met Mara's ears.  
  
"No thanks to you, you pathetic excuse for a genie" snapped the demon. "But at least I can begin my new plan of action to take down the Goddess network."  
  
The Goddess Network. Yggdrasil. The Tree of Life, the leaves and branches intertwined with crystal data banks. Probably the most sophisticated network in the Universe, comprising of an infinite number of pathways to each individual aspect of everyday life, protected by a dedicated team of system debuggers, several firewalls and Peorth, the 4th Goddess and newly- drafted system operator after the unexpected decision by The Almighty to exile the previous sysop (naming no names of course). To get into Yggdrasil would be like.Colditz? Nah, too easy. there are no comparisons, It would be unthinkable for anything to get illegal access to Yggdrasil, because if something goes wrong and screws up the Tree of Life, major badness is a dead cert.  
  
So for someone to think they have the answer to get into Yggdrasil, they are either the best programmer in the universe (at which point they would be scouted by Goddesses looking for better sysops) or they are very self assured and confident. I think it's safe to say that Mara was the latter.  
  
"So lemme get this straight" questioned the genie. "You're gonna hack Yggdrasil and see what you can get from them once you're in?"  
  
"Yes." replied Mara quickly, as she turned to the computer and retrieved the disk. "When the prissy goddesses run their scanning programs, they need to down some of their firewalls in order to get 100% access. Then, I can strike, and the world will be mine!!"  
  
Mara's impressive idea and stance as she stood over Senbei with an evil grin was more than enough to convince anyone that she was, for once, right. But Senbei had his doubts.  
  
"Don't you have any idea what you're looking for once you get in?"  
  
". " Mara was so concentrated on the objective of getting inside and then the result of world domination that she had no idea what to do if she succeeded in getting through. When she succeeded, she corrected herself, this has no chance of failure. She was bound to find something of interest and if not, she could always take pot luck and load another base virus into the system and see what happens. Ah, the infinite possibilities.  
  
"That's not your place to comment, slave!" She retorted, smacking the side of his head with the keyboard as he was slung to the other side of the cave, hitting the floor with a groan. "Gottit?"  
  
A second, louder groan signalled his apology and he slumped to the floor. It's good to be a demon, she mused as she straightened herself out, watching for the opening in the security grid of Yggdrasil on her specially developed computer program as she sipped on a cup of fresh coffee. Her time was coming, the first Demon ever to hack Yggdrasil, and make her place in history.  
  
Meanwhile, Urd and Skuld dropped into Heaven via their portals and met at Urd's Fountain, the fountain of time, situated at that thick root of Yggdrasil that extended to Asgard and beyond into the outer reaches of Heaven. Urd's fountain was carved of crystal and marble, and had the power to divine the past for answers to the future, or so they said. Above the spay of the fountain, Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, the crystal glinting in the full rays of the sun as the spire of the trunk spiralled into the upper parts of Heaven. It's worth noting that in Heaven, the sun shines all day in a cloudless sky, so the picturesque view is never lost to the Gods and Goddesses. Quite an impressive sight.  
  
"Who would have thought it? My own little fountain, all of my own" smiled Urd as Skuld joined her.  
  
There were other gods and goddesses gathered there; Urd's Fountain was a major meeting point for people all over Heaven who wanted to seek the advice of the Almighty or administrative jobs in the upper reaches of Yggdrasil, or for lovers and friends to meet after a long shift at work or in the training schools. But today, it seemed that there had been a total recall on most gods and goddesses before they made the big event. The air was thick with the voices of the deities, together with the birds and animals that inhabited the forests surrounding the clearing where Urd's Fountain stood.  
  
"Yeah, well, just you wait, I'll get my own statue soon, you'll see" replied Skuld as she pulled a face at her sister as Urd led Skuld through towards the lifts that would take them to the main control room near the top of Yggdrasil, where they were to report as soon as they got to Heaven, to Peorth. As floor by floor rushed past the two norns, they watched the unending and green landscape stretch farther outward, with a feeling of nostalgia. No matter how many times they were met by that view, it never ceased to be breath-taking.  
  
With a subtle ping, the elevator stopped at the control room, and they stepped into a hive of frenzied activity. The room was a ring, circled around the hole in the centre that was the main conduit of Yggdrasil. All throughout the lower floors, more lower-grade gods and goddess sat at their separate terminals facing the conduit, with some goddesses sat in hovering chairs inside the main conduit, looking at the endless wall of lights and glyphs of Yggdrasil's outputs, occasionally stopping to correct them here and there. Peorth looked up at the lift at the sound of the ping from her place by a fellow worker, stood up and strode towards them.  
  
"Hey Urd, Skuld, glad you could make it a little early this time." She greeted them in a friendly tone, a refreshing tone from the one he usually used to organise the department to save the world. She was a little overdressed by Peorth's normal standards this time, preferring to wear her white goddess dress instead of the black skimpy outfit.  
  
She led Skuld away to a co-worker who took her towards another door marked in Goddess Glyphs "De-Bugging section" and returned to Urd, who had taken her place in a hover-chair similar to Peorth's in readiness to be briefed. Peorth joined her and began to speak.  
  
"So, has ma cher K-boy got anywhere with Belldandy yet?"  
  
Urd rolled her eyes. "Trust you to want to know. Of course he hasn't done anything yet, you know Keiichi."  
  
Peorth seemed a little surprised and a smile came onto her face. "I'm surprised, I would have thought in a year their little relationship would have gotten somewhere. Maybe he just needs a little bit of education -"  
  
"Already tried that, and it doesn't work. He's not man enough." Cut in Urd. "Now if you don't mind, let's get this show on the road."  
  
Peorth's face lost her expression and became serious. "What's this? You actually want to work?"  
  
"Well let's just say I had a hard night last night, and I don't really want to miss Beavis and Butthead, so if you don't mind, can we just get this over with?"  
  
Peorth accepted that perhaps Urd wasn't in a talkative mood that day, and proceeded to run through all the normal pre-scan diagnostics, a screen flipping up and hovering in front of her body as she sat in her seat and joined Urd as they moved into the main conduit. Taking an ornate microphone from the seat, Peorth activated the Yggdrasil Public Announcement System and spoke in English for the whole of Yggdrasil to hear, her authoritarian yet silky voice booming out.  
  
"Attention all Gods and Goddesses! Main System Debugging beginning in 20 Earth minutes. Assure your local system manager of your readiness in good time before we are due to start. Anyone not already at a terminal make your way to you appropriate section immediately. I repeat, Main System Debugging beginning in 20 Earth minutes."  
  
As Urd ran through all her normal diagnostics, Skuld met up with the rest of her Debugging team in the crystal mazes that were the main hard drives of Earth. Overseeing the whole operation for that sector was Vala, a prophetess, famed for her truthful divination of the major wars of the twentieth century some several centuries before they even occurred. Gathered before her were a gaggle of several goddesses, younger and slightly older than Skuld, all waiting her arrival.  
  
Vala called out to her as she approached the group "Skuld! The Almighty has requested that you lead this debugging team. You have seven members, all of which are ready."  
  
Lord, why put me on the spot like this? wondered Skuld as she ushered Vala aside.  
  
"Why me? Can't you get someone else to do it?"  
  
"When it's the Almighty's word, you've got to do it." Retorted Vala. " I think he wants to see how you react. Just organise them and get them debugging."  
  
15 minutes to organise a squad of debuggers, great. Skuld could think of better things to do, but given the current situation, she had no choice.  
  
"It's simple. You get a hammer like mine and you whack 'em." She explained as she reached for her hammer and demonstrated on a bug that had popped out of one of the main crystals and smacked it hard, the bug squealing in pain and then disappearing in a shower of sparks as the gems on her hammer glowed brightly for a few moments and then dimmed. "Easy"  
  
The assembled agreed and on Skuld's demand, brandished their own anti-bug weaponry. Most favoured hammers and axes like Skuld, whilst a few had lightning guns and energy weapons, no doubt dreamt up in some garage in Asgard. Some of the members were fresh out of training school, whilst others were more seasoned veterans like Skuld, and as the 10 minute warning sounded on the YPA system, Skuld ordered her troops into three groups determined by their abilities, Skuld leading one of them down into the centre of the maze. After Skuld urged them to communicate as much as possible about the whereabouts of Bug Nests and themselves on communication devices supplied by Vala, they positioned themselves into their appropriate places and waited for the final countdown.  
  
Skuld retrieved Mini-Banpei from her bag and rested him on her shoulder as he initialised himself, working as a scanning device for bugs for Skuld's group, creating a low whirring sound of mechanics as he did so. This was going to be one tough day, considering the number of expected bugs to be released after the relax in system security.  
  
As Peorth sounded the five minute warning, on Earth everything went on as normal. Nothing could ever possibly persuade the inhabitants of Earth that in a few minutes one of the most important events in the last few centuries was about to happen. But that didn't stop Keiichi from getting on with his day, even though it was minus two goddesses. But as he rode on his cycle with Belldandy smiling in the sidecar, he felt reassured that nothing out of the ordinary was going to happen. He had the plan - go shopping with Belldandy, lunch in a nice restaurant and then perhaps a movie later on. And maybe more after that, he thought to himself, as he reached the outer limits of town, riding past the road that led down to the Nekomi Institute of Technology. The sky was blue and the sun was shining. Nothing, it seemed would go wrong today.  
  
A sudden light flashed repeatedly across Mara's monitor. Had she not been saturated in caffeine, she would have missed it. A message window opened on her monitor as she moved her mouse to the button placed next to the status indicator:  
  
"Yggdrasil Firewall status - 65% operational strength"  
  
The time had come. It was now or never. All Mara had to do was wait for the security in Yggdrasil to drop within acceptable levels before she could start her attack. The screen blinked again and a new message sat in the window.  
  
"Yggdrasil Firewall status - 38% operational strength. Do you wish to launch virus now?"  
  
Emphatically, Mara chose the "Yes" option, near breaking the mouse button as she made sure that she clicked the right button. The last month's work had all been leading to this moment and soon, Yggdrasil would be under attack, and she could control the system at will. An evil laugh escaped her lips as the status monitor flashed a new and dangerous message:  
  
"Virus sent. Awaiting Yggdrasil reply."  
  
It caught the whole network of Yggdrasil by surprise, I mean, no one expected an attack on Yggdrasil. Debuggers in the lower levels of the catacombs of crystal data cubes near the base of the Tree of Life first reported a surge in bugs five minutes after Peorth ordered the deactivation of some of the firewalls protecting Yggdrasil's systems. Afterwards, the virus surged slowly but devastatingly onwards up the Tree of Life, shutting down terminals and hijacking date links to colleagues that needed help. The screams of pain and yells of surprise of gods and goddesses on the lower levels echoed the sounds of hell as fires suddenly started on broken machinery and spread through the offices and command consoles. As Peorth and Urd began to hear the reports, they immediately took evasive action.  
  
"Get everyone out of the conduit, now!" ordered Urd, trying to keep as calm as possible as the lights below her in the Tree fell dark, as Peorth ushered the other sysops out of the chamber and into the higher levels.  
  
"What are you going to do!?" shouted Peorth as she moved back down to Urd's level, just below the level that the virus had lately spread to.  
  
"I'm gonna cut it off with magic. You try and get the firewalls operational again! And warn Skuld and the other debuggers in the hard drives, they'll need help if this thing grows any further!"  
  
Peorth looked a little defeated under the strain of having to cope, but obeyed, furiously tapping her keyboard as she returned to the top of the conduit.  
  
In a few seconds, Urd summoned her Angel and together, in a blast of white light, they sent a searing white light down and through the connections of the conduit, sweeping through Yggdrasil's systems, hardwired into the crystal walls of the Tree. The virus tried to get through, but instead was repelled by Urd's power. Steadily, they managed to send it back down the column, preventing access from any of the other more critical systems. It began easily enough for the goddess of the past, but it soon became worse as the virus fought back, pushing steadily against the wall of Urd's power.  
  
Meanwhile, in the crystal walkways, Skuld and her team were having to destroy an increasingly large number of small and medium-sized bugs.  
  
"I thought she said it was going to be easy" shouted a god into his microphone.  
  
"Just shuddup and get smashing, Julius" shouted Skuld back, as she led her team forward, inch by inch.  
  
All throughout the area came the constant sound of deleting bugs and the slamming of hammers of the surfaces of the drives, occasionally interrupted by the hum of electrical and energy weapons attacking whole groups of bugs in one go. Even Mini-Banpei managed to delete a few with his rocket punch as the gems on Skuld's hammer shone brightly with power as they assimilated the bugs' power into the hammer.  
  
Eventually, the numbers became overwhelming, and Skuld ordered the retreat to the pre-arranged point, where they met and made a last stand defending the entrance to the conduit of Yggdrasil, where Vala was clearing the area of the last of the bugs that had wandered her way. They all joined together in a short prayer to the Almighty whilst they had time to stop and wait for next wave of eight-legged things. When they finally came near, the ten deities attacked with as much vigour as they could summon from The Almighty, eventually leaving their regroup point to run the surviving bugs down.  
  
"Oh yeah, we rock!" shouted Skuld, her hammer shining brightly as she crushed a fleeing bug. "Keep going, we got them on the run!"  
  
Despite all odds, and some injuries on the part of some of the gods and goddesses, it looked as if they were going to win. Even though they had no idea of the battles between the virus and the inhabitants of Heaven that were raging on in the centre of Yggdrasil.  
  
"Yggdrasil Firewall status - 57% operational strength and rising. Virus terminating. Yggdrasil bridge destabilising."  
  
Damn it! Mara hadn't counted on the Lord of Terror's alternate form lending a hand on the system debugging, and she was sure that her virus would be powerful enough to withstand the effects of Urd's powers. Or so she thought.  
  
So far all she had access to was the main resources  
  
Ah, So her plan hadn't gone completely right, but the glory was all in the struggle, she reminded herself. Things weren't over yet, not by a long shot. She launched a small scrambler virus after the main attack and waited for the signal. A familiar window flipped up on her screen.  
  
"Virus sent. Awaiting Yggdrasil reply."  
  
What the scrambler would do was the multi-million yen question, and even Vala could not begin to predict the effect it might have on an exposed system like Yggdrasil.  
  
"AggghhhhhHHH!!" Urd's scream echoed through the conduit as she desperately tried to drive the virus further down the conduit. It had been a hard battle, but if she couldn't stop it soon, then she would surely lose, and that would be it, all her efforts for nothing.  
  
"Need any help?"  
  
La Rose Magnifique hovered alongside Urd as Peorth dropped down in her hover chair and added more firepower to Urd. The virus stood less chance against two first-class goddesses and after expending the last of it's energy trying to fight the white energy bolt from the two goddesses above, it seemed to lose it's grip on the Yggdrasil system and terminate under the obscene power of the goddesses, leaving only a faint hiss of warm metal and scorched plant material as the smoke cleared.  
  
"Sysop Peorth, firewalls are all intact and operational!" came a voice of one of the terminal workers from the top of the conduit, prompting Peorth to raise her head upward as her Angel rejoined her. Urd's Angel seemed to collapse into her owner's body by comparison, and Urd's unconscious body slumped into her chair as the strain of fighting the virus had taken it's toll.  
  
As Peorth joined her friend, she couldn't make a judgement on whether she was alive, unconscious or dead. Slowly, she took control of the hover chair and took her to the safe limits of the upper floors, whilst she witnessed the gods and goddesses regaining control of the main systems after the strike. The once clean and pristine surroundings of the inside of Yggdrasil system control were soiled forever with scorch marks of fires and the destruction caused by equipment flung awry.  
  
Things like that could be easily cleaned up, she promised herself. What mattered was getting Urd to safety, and then rejoining her colleagues to regaining stability in the system. If it was ever possible to piece this place back together. 


	4. TToE: Chapter 3

Chapter 3:  
  
"Urd?"  
  
Skuld suddenly reeled round at the sound of her sister's cry of pain as it echoed round Yggdrasil. She faltered, and was about to turn and leave her team to it to help Urd when Mini Banpei suddenly let out a series of bleeps. Skuld unconsciously interpreted the signals and relayed it to the group, who were righteously deleting the rest of the bugs, via her microphone.  
  
"Team, listen up. Mini Banpei senses a large bug in the area around the Earth Interface drives."  
  
"Are you sure that he's not made a mistake?" answered Vala, slightly wary of Skuld's dependence on technology. Skuld glared at her before she continued.  
  
"I'm sure of it. He's never been wrong before. Now let's go kick it's ass!"  
  
Her decision was met by a rousing cheer as they raced off to find the offender in their territory. How bad could it possibly be in comparison to what they had already faced?  
  
"As far as we can tell at the moment, the virus only managed to penetrate Heaven with considerable damage, but no damage to Earth's Systems has been reported so far" piped a terminal worker as Peorth rounded the top of conduit and deposited Urd's frail body into the care of a couple of orderlies. As they carted her to the sick bay, along with the other wounded peoples of the lower levels, Peorth forced herself to think of the bigger issue.  
  
"We would have sustained more damage if we had relaxed security even more before the attack or if the firewalls were not put back in place so quickly"  
  
Peorth sighed. As Sysop, it was her responsibility to do something about the crisis. "Ok, I want all links between Earth and Heaven suspended indefinitely" she ordered at the woman, and then more quietly "Just until we can sort this mess out".  
  
She slumped into her chair and got a damage report. Several dozen wounded for sure, irreparable damage to some of Yggdrasil's wiring, desecrated statues and worst of all, the dimensional portals had been too badly damaged to use. So even if anyone wanted to get back to Earth, it would be an impossibility.  
  
Skuld's voice suddenly crackled through the communication line directly through to Peorth.  
  
"Peorth.Peorth, we have a big problem here! Send us help! We are in the Force System area of the crystals and there's this bug - it's huge, we're having trouble deleting it! Please send help!"  
  
Peorth's eyes widened. Maybe the main attack was just a mere diversion?  
  
The same woman at the terminal confirmed Peorth's worst fears.  
  
"Peorth? We have a problem in the Force System. It's power output is off the scale and rising. What do we do, do we shut it down? Peorth?"  
  
Peorth's face bore a look of determined resolution as she stared into the ether, calculating her move.  
  
"Do this - get me a direct pathway within Yggdrasil so that I can transport to the crystal cubes. Do it now!"  
  
Within moments a gateway appeared in the room, the destination glimmering within the ring of white light, and Peorth raced towards it. A moment of disorientation and then she dropped into the room, light bouncing off all the crystals as small gods and goddesses ran for cover below her. From her vantage point, she could see the source of their fear. Amidst the glowing towers of clear cut material sat a huge bug, all eight legs attached to the one main spire of the Force System, an evil look beset on its face. Power and light arched off the crystalline surface as it tried to interface with the system and as Peorth watched, it shrugged off everything that was thrown at it; energy beams and hammer blows alike.  
  
"Virus detected in Force System. Type Scrambler, Peorth"  
  
The voice in her head via the communication line to the terminal workers told her all she needed to know. Scramblers, the worst kind of bug; big, dumb and their only objective is to modify existing systems. Even if they were injured of partly shutdown, they automatically try to make a kamikaze attack. One of the worst things to spawn out of the minds of the Demons.  
  
Surely it wouldn't be able to withstand that amount of power from the System, she wondered as she powered up a bolt. Light flares around her hands as she made the ancient incantation and she fired a blast on the creature, sparks flying off the air as it travelled towards it's target. But it was too late, the bug had fully integrated with the Force System as it attempted to modify the registry programs within it.  
  
"Secondary firewalls back online, Peorth!"  
  
The security net powered up to maximum effectiveness, and as Peorth ushered the deities out of the room, she watched the spire of crystal crack and break as pure energy surged through the invader of its systems. The bug's eyes popped and then it seemed to delete under the strain of the power from the crystal. As the dust and light settled, a deep crack remained in the centre of the crystal at the point of interface with the bug, lightning arched from the crack. Scattered across the floor in a thousand fragments lay the remains of the piece that fell out of the spire.  
  
"Yggdrasil Firewall status - 100% operational strength. Connection to Yggdrasil system lost."  
  
So that's that. I hope that shook them up good, thought Mara with glee, as she disconnected her machine and sat back in her chair. All that was left now was to see what happened as a result of the attack on Earth. I guess it was fun, for a while.where was your Almighty when all that hit the fan, huh?  
  
Whilst Heaven was experiencing dire straits, Earth meanwhile got on with it's business undisturbed. Apart from the apocalyptic rainstorm that seemed to have gathered in the sky above the town.  
  
As people ran for cover from the pelting rain, Belldandy looked out of the window of the booth in the restaurant Keiichi had taken her to. Not a soul was seen on the streets, only the occasional businessman caught without a coat or umbrella. The dark grey and blue scene was a stark contrast from the warm orange glow of the lights inside the shop, accompanied by the smells of freshly cooked seafood and the quiet voices of several people all talking to each other. All on the background of heavy rain splashing on the roof and the pavement outside.  
  
She turned in her place to face the table whilst the waiter served their meal as Keiichi sat on the opposite side of the table and examined her troubled expression. Even though he knew that storms at that time of year were common, he couldn't shake the feeling that somehow it was a prelude to disaster. Maybe Belldandy thought the same way.  
  
But he had to be strong for her, he had to face up to his problems and be a man. Or at least that's what his books told him to do. He smiled as his face met hers and then as the first claps of thunder began to sound, he began to speak to her.  
  
"Who would have though it, and yet we had sunshine this morning" he said, as he began munching through a fish platter.  
  
Belldandy tried her best to smile and eat her meal, but her mind just wasn't on the affairs of Keiichi. Or Earth for that matter. Muttering a "yes", she began chewing thoughtfully on a piece of fish and stared out of the window. Why hadn't she been recalled as well?  
  
This was so unlike the Belldandy that Keiichi knew and it puzzled him a little. He politely asked her what was wrong.  
  
"I do care for you, Bell. Just try and tell me what's wrong."  
  
She looked up at him and forced a smile on her features. "it's nothing, really Keiichi, I was just.well, worried for Skuld and Urd, I suppose."  
  
Keiichi leant forward slightly and took her hand. "Wherever they are, I'm sure that they wouldn't want to you to worry for them. They're in good hands."  
  
Whilst they talked sweet nothings to each other, they had no time to notice that the rain had stopped and instead the sun was shining again as the rain receded. The pair finished their meal, paid the waiter who seemed more interested in Belldandy then a tip, and stepped outside, dodging puddles of rain as they headed towards the harbour.  
  
A low rumble. The people them stopped and listened for a while, and when they realised that it wasn't another freak Earthquake, so prone to happening in Japan, that they went about their business again. Keiichi was about to join the crowds heading for the tour boat when he stopped and noticed Belldandy was staring in the direction of the sound, her hair billowing around her as the wind picked up. It would seem that she had picked up on something that ordinary mortals did not.  
  
"A shift in the landlines" she commented to no-one in particular, as Keiichi returned to her side. It took him a few moments to understand what she meant.  
  
"A shift? But, doesn't it take a lot of power to do that? Even you had to rely on outside powers to do that at Megumi's place" He winced as he even suggested that it could be the thing that Belldandy had a premonition about.  
  
"Perhaps, perhaps not. There could be a good reason for why they've changed, if they have changed. Yggdrasil is fully capable of doing that if need be. But why is my question."  
  
"I'm sure it was a good reason, Peorth never makes mistakes? But nothing bad can happen because of that, right? C'mon Bell, it's probably nothing, there's probably a good reason for the shift.."  
  
"Yggdrasil's not infallible, however we all like to think. All the same, I think.no.I feel.that's what's happened."  
  
Some things about Goddesses I'll never understand fully, he mused, as Keiichi joined her stare, another low rumble sounded, slightly more audible than the first. Sure, a few small tremors are occasional and shouldn't be too much of a problem. After a few more seconds trying to divine the source of the sounds, he gave up and turned to see the harbour tour boat moving out to sea, white spray leaving in its wake. His chance of a romantic day out were evaporating as fast as the puddles in the tarmac.  
  
"Well, there's no point staying here now." He murmured as he rejoined Belldandy, he turned to face him, her smile returned. He indicated to the boat, now clear of the harbour.  
  
"Oh Keiichi, I'm sorry, it must have meant a lot to you." She tried to apologise, but Keiichi stopped her.  
  
"Nah, it's cool. If you want to go inland and find out what really happened, we can go now."  
  
She brightened up and looked expectantly "Really? I would like to find out for myself. But if you want to stay, then we can."  
  
He smiled as he gave his response "If my Goddess so wants to go, we can go. It's getting a little dead around here anyway."  
  
Belldandy inwardly thanked Him for being able to meet a considerate guy like Keiichi as they made their way back to their motorcycle, hand in hand, the visually perfect couple. Keiichi saddled up and after Belldandy had taken her place in the sidecar, they were off with a few noisy blasts of the exhaust. The seaside life and gulls swept past them as the made for the edge of town, and then to the main road inland.  
  
As Keiichi kept the cycle on the road, it seemed that the tremors had stopped. Or he couldn't hear them over the traffic as it screamed passed him in the opposite direction. As he concentrated on riding safely, his passenger Belldandy seemed focused on something unseen, preparing herself mentally and physically for anything that may lie ahead. Even Keiichi's normally persuasiveness wasn't enough to drive the idea of any immediate danger from her mind.  
  
The road winded along the river that led to the sea in the direction that they came from, and before long, the road twisted off the parallel route to the woodland areas, and further on, the towns and cities of the urban developments. And into the potential danger unknown beyond.  
  
Damn, I hope Bell knows what she's doing, he muttered through gritted teeth as the road as he gripped the cycle's throttle and led it into town.  
  
"Earth news had already picked up on the Heaven bolt, it landed somewhere in Japan, in the East of the map"  
  
In Heaven's Operation Room, Peorth's aids were already briefing her on the system status of Earth the second she walked through the door from the Infirmary wing, where she left Urd to recover. A holographic map shimmered in the centre of the room, a standard Earth map displayed upon it, various statistics changing erratically on one corner of the simulation.  
  
"It managed to land a direct hit on a main Landline"  
  
Peorth slumped into a chair, a look of grim determination on her face. Today was just one damn thing after another.  
  
"Anything crucial?"  
  
A second aid piped the response. "Nothing reported so far, too much debris and broken transfer beams for the scans to get a clear indication. The readings we do have are off the scale though." She pointed at the jumble of letters and numbers flashing past on another hologram which popped up in front of Peorth's console.  
  
The black-haired sysop remained focused. Her job was to organize, not look at the figures, which could be wrong in the first place.  
  
"Right, okay. Continue monitoring, tell me when the situation changes. In the meantime, I want dimensional bridges to get back online and try and tell Belldandy to give us a better indication of what the hell is going on down there!"  
  
Once the aids had sat down once more, Peorth watched the playback of the bug on the Force Conduit. Only one person in the demon world knew how to code well enough to hack the Yggdrasil network, and that was Mara. Her fist clenched as she vowed revenge. Part of getting to Earth again was to get her to answer for her crimes.  
  
Her crimes. For upsetting the Goddess network. For putting the lives of all concerned in danger.  
  
For..Urd?  
  
True, they had never really seen eye to eye, but there still was some feeling for her. Love? Too strong, more like just a faithful companion. In any case, she didn't want to see her become a cripple for the rest of eternity. Which could be possible given what she just went through and her physical state; the result of the Lord Of Terror and a goddess. No, she would pull through, she had to. For Belldandy's sake. For everyone's sake.  
  
Goddesses may be immortal, but they can still break.  
  
"Oh. My. Goddess."  
  
The first words of Keiichi Morisato as they neared the epicentre of the disaster, the motorcycle grinding down as he hit the break, gaping at the spectacle before him. A crater lay like a dent in the ground made by a comet in an intergalactic game of baseball, a crack through the bottom of the hole split the crater into two halves. It must have been about half a mile in diameter, the ground smoky in some areas. The police were already cordoning off the area from the general public and news teams, including the many wackos from the NIT Paranormal and Space Life Club. Sometimes he felt glad that he didn't have to spend his free time with those wierdos, but then again, he had Tamiya and Otaki to fill in the position of "weirdo" for him. At that moment, they were wandering around and shouting, waving their banners and causing a general fuss about Life from Mars and other alien type stuff.  
  
Keiichi glanced back to Belldandy; after all, he hadn't come to see and support that club, it was because Belldandy had asked him to. Even though in normal circumstances he would have grabbed his favourite stuffed toy and ran for the nearest bomb shelter. But with her being there, she had a calming influence over him, either that or he was plain crazy to do something like that. Besides, they had dealt with enough in the past to see off any bug-eyed aliens. Should they exist, which Belldandy at one point assured him that they didn't. She had an inquisitive look on her face; things like freak holes occurring in the ground must have been a regular occurrence to her, thought Keiichi, as she grabbed his hand as to not lose him as she made her way to the crowd.  
  
As they made their way closer to the crater, the sound of reporters making stories and taking interviews filled the air, and as they squeezed past the remote-transmission vans, the sound of the crowd hit them like a brick wall, as they chatted and gossiped and jostled for a better view. It was almost deafening. Madness to go in, impossible to get out.  
  
Belldandy's influence on the crowd meant that a gap in the thronging masses appeared, a straight line to the police line. With little hesitation, Keiichi joined Belldandy as she walked through the gap and got a better view of the incident from the front line. As they got to the police tape that provided a makeshift barrier to the crater's edge, Keiichi made out something in the centre.  
  
"Hey Belldandy.what is that in the centre?"  
  
Keiichi had noticed an ominous black rock in the centre of the crater, scorch marks on the ground indicating the heat that was once involved. It seemed that the police had no idea of it as well, and the crackled message from the radio of a nearby officer that Keiichi managed to overhear signalled the confusion. It seemed that the police were being told to keep the crowds back so that they could get a team of specialists in to the area, so that they could make a thorough analysis.  
  
Which probably meant the army's research division.  
  
As Belldandy analysed the object, she could not summon any idea of what it might be. What she really needed was a closer look, but that meant passing the police line. She performed a silent program and enhanced her senses, seeing further than those at the police line could fathom. Five goddess glyphs were written along one side, fused into the rock as it continued to cool. The writing was archaic, ancient even, Belldandy had no idea what they meant.  
  
"Seen anything interesting yet, Bell?"  
  
"Perhaps.there's something written on it, but even I have trouble understanding it."  
  
"Oh. Bummer. So, shall we call it a day? I mean, there's backup on the way, right? Pretty soon we won't be able to stand here."  
  
"I could try and contact the office, they might be able to help. But I need to get away from here, somewhere where we can be out of the way of everyone else."  
  
"Sure, we can go into the woods over there" he gesticulated a finger in the general direction, only for it to be flung out of the way by a pushy spectator, eager to grab a look.  
  
Nursing a slightly bruised arm, Keiichi followed his girl out of the crowd, who were only to happy to get out of the way for the pair to pass through and return to Keiichi's vehicle. From there, they saddled up again and took the single dirt road that lead up a hill in the nearby area, the ground slowly fading away as grass, shrubs and trees took over the attempts to tarmac the road. As Keiichi revved his motor up the hill, Belldandy looked out for an appropriate place for her to rest and contact her employers.  
  
As Belldandy chose a spot in a clearing in the trees, Keiichi looked out from the vantage point and looks at the crater below. The crowd seemed to have grown smaller, or was that his eyesight from so far away? From along the road a convoy of cars suddenly came into view, getting larger and more defined as they got closer to the crater. The finely tuned engines' roars could be heard breaking through the air and Keiichi guessed they must be the backup the police were talking about. He sighed and was about to sit down and watch the herding of the mass of people begin when he noticed a wind picking up and brush against his shirt. He turned around and saw Belldandy in the clearing as bolts of energy began to arch and crackle as the static electricity grew. She was ready to begin transfer.  
  
Belldandy sat cross-legged on the ground in the clearing, her hands on her knees, her eyes closed, an expression of concentration on her face as the wind whipped the leaves from the ground in a cyclone around her. The runes on her face began to glow a faint shade of blue, kind of like they did when she made that wish.  
  
Up in Goddess Central, Peorth was running through some backups when she got the call. Immediately she knew who it was, the signature was from Earth, there was no mistaking it. She paused her work and sat back in her chair, the ornate handset of her chair's telephone held in her left hand to her ear. As was the code of conduct, Peorth spoke first, trying to mask the relief in her voice that at least they still had one Goddess on Earth.  
  
"Hello, Goddess Head Office.Belldandy is that you?"  
  
"Peorth, yes, this is Belldandy. I have a request - "  
  
"Belldandy, I'm sorry, we haven't the time at the moment. We've just had an attack, Yggdrasil suffered a lot, but it looks as if everything's under control now. We think that the Force System suffered some damage. The side effects seem to have been centred in Japan and we need to find out exactly what. Do you think you can find it?"  
  
The huge amount of information went in and took Belldandy those few extra seconds to register. Her first thoughts were if anyone was badly hurt, but after a conflicting thought, her mind focused on the request.  
  
"Actually, we've already found something unusual. Locate my signal and about half a mile from here there's a crater in the ground with something strange in the centre. I can't divine it's source, but it is unworldly."  
  
One of Peorth's aids had already done just that and were running an analysis of it, projecting an image of it onto the main crystal screen in the control room whilst Peorth began to respond.  
  
"Oh, ok, we have it on-screen, we'll take it from here. Well, I suggest you stay home while we figure it out."  
  
Belldandy lay limp. Sure, she wanted to help, but she couldn't do anything for the moment. Besides that, she wanted to know whether her sisters were still alright. And if they could come home.  
  
"Umm." Peorth felt a lump grow in her throat. How could she tell her?  
  
"They're fine, just fine. But they need to put in some overtime, just until we can get things totally sorted." Peorth couldn't believe herself. Lying could cause her to lose her license, everything she had worked so hard for. Her unblemished record.  
  
"Oh, alright. I'll continue to monitor things my end."  
  
Peorth could sense the gravity in Belldandy's resigned voice. She resolved it that she would tell her the truth soon, at least when they had a chance to speak again. She hung the handset back on the telephone and slumped into her chair, gazing at the image in front of her.  
  
They ceased communication. As the dust settled, Keiichi helped her up off the floor and into the sidecar. Once she was seated, he asked her what Peorth had wanted her to do. He shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"Well, I guess everything will be okay. C'mon, let's get home"  
  
Belldandy agreed, although Keiichi noticed the lack of sincerity in her tone. With Keiichi firmly in the saddle, the sidecar raced down the dusty path and joined the mass-exodus of crowds that had been ushered away from the crash site. Weaving through the throng of people, they finally reached Nekomi's outer limits. 


	5. TToE: Chapter 4

Chapter 4:  
  
The temple was quiet and settled as Keiichi took the key out of the ignition and scanned the horizon. Thick clouds had begun to gather on the horizon as he helped Belldandy out of the sidecar, unsure of what exactly to do. What could he do? The events of the past few hours had turned his once ideal situation on it's head. Who knew exactly what had gone on? As she stood up again, stiff after the journey, he studied her face to try and judge her mood.  
  
Belldandy had obviously had a lot of time to consider what had happened, all the ins and outs of what may have happened in Heaven, especially on a full stomach of instant sushi and rice. Despite the limited information Peorth had given her, Belldandy still remained optimistic that everything was going to turn out fine. Or maybe it was her natural way of covering up her doubts - Peorth was as bad at lying as Urd was, although Peorth used it as a means of protection for other people and not herself. That was the source of her doubt, doubt at the fate of her sisters. She became embraced in her thoughts and fears, her body caught in an almost trance like state, as she let Keiichi take her hand and lead her into the tea room. The goddess' eyes closed as her brain calculated what she should do, trying to think rationally amongst the angst of her mind.  
  
A sound, distant and distorted, hit her ears, momentarily interrupting her thinking and she began concentrating on reality. It became louder and more distinct, she lapsed back into activity and opened her eyes, to the sight of Keiichi leant over her body. At her first glance, the stance seemed to indicate that Keiichi had ideas that were a little less than honourable, until she noticed his outstretched arm, offering a cup of tea to her. Her mind snapped back into "normal" gear again, and with an attempt at a smile took the steaming cup from his hand and cradled it into her lap, as Keiichi unceremoniously flung himself into a seat opposite Belldandy. He had laid her in a comfy seat in the tea room, and as Keiichi watched, she began to sit upright.  
  
"Wow. What a day, huh? A lot of things happening at once."  
  
It took a while for Belldandy to find words to try and speak indifferently.  
  
"Y.Yes, although the likelihood of an attack on the Yggdrasil system is extremely improbable, I never realised how much damage it could cause."  
  
Keiichi predicted where the conversation would lead to. Urd and Skuld were almost like sisters to him, and certainly without them, the household seemed to have lost a lot of an unknown energy. No, not energy, life, the very essence of existence, and without it, the household had seemed to have lost a part of itself. Now there was the possibility that relative normality of the four-person family would never be returned. But for Belldandy, these were the people that she had known all her life, her true sisters. Loosing one would be bad enough, but two? It was unthinkable.  
  
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, searching for a response to say. But none came. All that he could find to do was to get up and sit next to her, holding her head in his lap as he stroked her hair. It came as a mild shock to Belldandy, although she freely accepted the comfort that he had to offer her. In times of stress, Keiichi seemed to have an override switch when it came to doing acts to help the ones he loved, even if normally things like that would send him out in a sweat by being this close to a woman.  
  
"Belldandy." he uttered softly as the rain began to patter on the tiles plating the roof.  
  
"Hmm?" She shifted her head slightly, looking up at him as he gazed purposefully into her eyes. Those blue orbs tried to keep up with the façade of her overall expression, but they had lost their usual sparkle. She's so good at hiding her true self, he murmured to himself. He reasoned that if she was like any girl, she would be tearing herself apart with worry.  
  
Silently. Alone. Inside herself.  
  
"I.I am here for you. Remember, we're together - I may not be a God, but I can still help."  
  
The corners of her mouth moved upward, forming what was almost a smile, her hand moved up to touch his cheek, her hand warm against his cheek. Even without Godly powers, a mortal was able to do something that few people were able to do to her; give her warmth in times of trouble.  
  
"How could I forget you, Keiichi." She lifted herself up to his level and gave him a light kiss on the lips before returning her head to his lap. "Thank you."  
  
Typically, Keiichi was at a loss for words. Hey, it wasn't everyday that he got a kiss from a girl as beautiful as Belldandy. But just as he was about to fudge a response, she found Belldandy asleep in her lap, her eyes closed. Very peaceful.  
  
Ah well, she has had quite a day. muttered Keiichi, deliberating with himself whether to try and get up or to leave his sleeping charge on her lap and follow in her example. Glancing at his watch and reading off the 8:30pm time displayed, he decided on the latter, and after placing a cushion under his head as a head rest, he closed his eyes and let sleep embrace him.  
  
BUZZ! BUZZ! BUZZ! BUZZ!  
  
The familiar sound of an electronic alarm clock hit his ear drum. His eyes opened as his arms groggily tried to find the source of the irritable sound, intent on smashing it to pieces. As the clock's sharp buzzer was sharply stopped, Keiichi came to terms with where he was. He was lying down, in the bed in his room, despite he had the impression that he had fallen asleep on the couch, with Belldandy in his lap. Maybe she woke up earlier and put me into bed? He wondered, as he tried to fight the weariness and get out of bed, this being a difficult task at any time of the week. After a quick thought, he groped for the clock face and tried to read it as his eyes adjusted to the dawn. 7:30am, work at 9am. Hell, it was Monday morning after all; the worst day of the week*.  
  
*Don't you read Garfield?  
  
Having showered and dressed, he found Belldandy making morning tea and breakfast, looking at the sunrise over the sleepy town of Nekomi. She greeted him with her normal, cheery "good morning" smile, and set the mugs on the table as Keiichi grabbed his usual space on the couch and started sipping tea. They spoke about the weather, work, holidays, trying to end the silence that was replacing the usual hubbub of three goddesses and a mortal at breakfast. It was difficult to believe everything that had happened yesterday. But it was no use trying to think about it, as the more pressing matter in the form of Chihiro's angry face if they were late for work was more paramount; even if they thought they had enough time on their hands, it never hurt to try and leave a little time to avoid the inevitable rush hour traffic.  
  
Keiichi watched Belldandy lock up the house as he sat patiently on his motorcycle, awaiting her arrival so that they could get moving to the town centre. She didn't seem to worried about her sisters at that moment, that or she was hiding it from view or she, like Keiichi, was momentarily blinded of it by the safety of the regularity of a nine-to-five working week. Keiichi felt the bike wobble slightly, and was awoken in his thoughts as he felt the extra weight of Belldandy, albeit the very slight extra weight of a goddess, as she mounted the leather seat and donned her helmet, the one that read "Goddess Inc" across the top above the visor. With clothes like that, it was a miracle that no one had ever twigged that she was a real goddess. Or had asked where she had bought her fantastical outfits from. With her arms wrapped around Keiichi, enough to hold her to the bike and to allow Keiichi to breathe, he kicked the starter and the bike sputtered into life, roaring like a great cat as Keiichi gunned the throttle with his hand. Taking his other foot off the ground, he hit the gas and with a cloud of smoke from the back wheel, the bike moved off the drive and met the main road, their temple home receding into the distance in the reflection of his wing mirror.  
  
The tyres kicked up the dust outside the mobile office they called their workplace as Keiichi brought the bike into their space, slowing to a halt and allowing Belldandy to step off the bike quickly. Whilst Keiichi arranged the kickstand on the bike and secured the bike's locking system, Belldandy had already taken off her helmet and was rearranging her hair a little, although being a goddess, it seemed to fall into a set pattern of her own devising quite naturally. And with the turning of a key and clinking of a simple lock, the office was opened and the pair got the place running. "Running" at Whirlwind is relative to the stereotypically efficient Japanese business, and in this case, "running" was getting the electrics working, the kettle running and reading the morning mail whilst they waited for boss Chihiro to turn up. Hey, they were a little early this morning, as indicated by the clock displayed on the morning news television channel, which read 8.50. Which meant that Chihiro was later than usual. But then again, who would be there to reprimand her if she was late anyway? The static cleared and then the sound filtered through.  
  
"Hello and good morning! This is Japan Morning News on channel 7, the latest stories on JMN at 9 am."  
  
An outstretched arm temporarily blocked Keiichi's view of the television as he took his second cup of tea of the day from Belldandy and offered a space on the couch opposite the television. After taking a slug of tea, Keiichi folded his arms behind his head and stretched, trying to work some of the caffeine into his system to try and wake up, half watching the international news reports.  
  
"She's not usually this late" murmured Belldandy, slightly startling Keiichi to her presence next to him. "Perhaps something urgent came up for her?"  
  
"Well, she would have phoned if she was going to be late, so.I guess we just sit and wait."  
  
And sure enough, the store's cell phone began to ring just as the brightly- faced newsreader had finished the first story on the unidentified object that had appeared a little under 12 hours ago. On the off-chance that it could be a customer, Keiichi went through the motions of his polished telephonists routine.  
  
"Good Morning, Whirlwind Autos, Keiichi here!"  
  
"Hey, Keiichi, it's me, Chihiro, I have a little something for you to do."  
  
Keiichi's face became a grimace. Knowing Chihiro, it could be anything. "Such as..?"  
  
"You've heard that the Diamond Duels are coming up soon?"  
  
"Yeah, I did hear, and lemme guess, you entered me for it, huh?"  
  
"Well, come on, Morisato, it's not like you haven't done anything special in the last few months, and it'll be a great advertising opportunity too. Besides, it'll be fun."  
  
Sighing heavily, indicative of the lack of faith he had in his boss's remark, he took up a pencil and paper and jotted down the date and time of the races, and stopped to feed the fax machine with paper as Chihiro began to send him the rulebook.  
  
"Is that all Chihiro? Are you going to come in and get started on the blueprints?"  
  
"Oh no, I reckon you'll be fine on your own, I mean, Belldandy's gonna help you out too, yes? What have you go to worry about? Now stop complaining and get to work."  
  
"Yes boss" he replied, defeated and he hung up the telephone on her, stopping at the fax machine to grab the wad of paper that she had sent through and flung himself back into the seat next to Belldandy, who had been absent-mindedly been watching the television whilst Keiichi had been talking on the telephone. She watched him come over and asked who had called.  
  
"Oh, just Chihiro. She wants us to go in for the Diamond Duels, so we have to find out what she entered us for - Gack!"  
  
"What's wrong, Keiichi?" asked Belldandy, startled by the mixed looked of shock and horror on his face as he passed a copy of the entry form to Belldandy, pointing to the ringed sections. Puzzled, she read it aloud in front of Keiichi:  
  
"Nekomi Asphalt rounds - professional class"  
  
"That means we have to compete against pro-riders in a circuit based around Nekomi" Keiichi explained, having gotten over his initial surprise and reached for the next sheet of the rules which detailed each race type. "On the plus side, at least we didn't get entered for some of the other events - I would have hated to do another Hill Climb."  
  
"But Keiichi, what exactly are the Diamond Duels?"  
  
The Diamond Duels, as Keiichi explained, are the pinnacle of the amateur and professional racing season for every auto-enthusiast, driver/rider and wrench-jockey in their prefecture. In addition to drag racing and hill climbs, the event runs a certain number of races for both cars and bikes through the streets of Nekomi, which has the biggest network of roads. It was the perfect venue for twelve days of manic sports action, and all accompanied by the major players of the Japanese racing industry, plus a carnival for all those moments waiting around for the action to start. Certainly, Chihiro had the right ideas if she wanted to grab a slice of the publicity opportunity by putting a racer in one of the events, so she could put up a stall and get some extra custom. One of the main provisos was that each team had to make their own bike from scratch, so that they could show their mechanical expertise as well as their racing ability, so it was an all-round test, and in the race Keichii aimed to participate in, they had to make a bike that would provide some decent speed and grip if they were to have any hope in trying to win. Checking the time that they had left, Keiichi cursed his luck and Chihiro for leaving him only a week in which to prepare. But they still had time left.  
  
Belldandy had already got to the drawing board in the office as Keiichi had finished, and needed a list of inventory so that they knew what they needed to buy in addition to what parts they could scrounge. As well as that, they needed sponsors and raw materials before they even got started. Before long, they had everything that they needed and began working out the basic frame of the bike based on some older drawings Keiichi had in an archive on the store's computer, with no time to give a thought to the affairs of Heaven.  
  
Meanwhile, an inquisitive Mara could not help but become interested in the growing military presence surrounding the strange structure that had mysteriously appeared in the Japanese countryside. Most attention had been towards keeping the excited crowds and news teams out of the way of the proceedings, which left Mara the opportunity to sneak about unnoticed to the tent that the army had erected to cover the object from view.  
  
As a demon, Mara had the ability to stay focused in trying to find anything that could prove useful in aiding her next scheme to overthrow Heaven, which could have included more computer parts from the Japanese Army's science division to speed up her system. Because of the restrictions on the constitution of the country's fighting force, Mara decided that it wouldn't be worth her while trying to steal just computers, or even guns and military hardware for that matter; the last defence budget was lowered because of the lack of threat to internal security. This, however, did not deter an enthusiastic Senbei, who had tagged along "just in case", and was eying up pretty much anything that had a flashing light on it and wasn't nailed to the ground.  
  
"Oooh! Check this out, Mistress! It had fast forward, rewind, on-board editing options and a fully adjustable lens!"  
  
Mara turned to her genie-companion and gave him a tired look that indicated that she did not really give a damn.  
  
"Senbei, what would I need with a television camera? Put it and your voice down. I have to find out where they're keeping this thing that they found..."  
  
Grumbling, Senbei put the camera back on the makeshift bench he had found it on before finding himself sharply dragged by the collar and hauled into a temporary jump gate that Mara had created to get within a locked portable cabin that had been erected as a quick base of operations, with several rusting crates with government markings on them laid opened and bare around the outside. Once inside the cabin, he had the chance to get his breath back after being half-strangled by Mara, who was already scanning the desk, cluttered with papers and photographs that they had already taken and developed of the strange object, lest it disappear or change shape over time and experiments. On the opposite wall, Senbei noticed a white board with a number of calculations scribbled all over it; carbon dating formulae and chemical analysis, from what he could make of it, his education had a lot of holes in it, being stuck as a genie. On another table, a rack of test tubes with samples that had already been taken, next to a microscope and some empty slides.  
  
Mara turned from the mass of sheets and huffed indignantly. She still had no idea where on Earth they were keeping their new-found artefact, and all that she had found from the hurried writing that the scientist conducting their investigation had no idea of what they were dealing with or where it had come from. Based on the garbled reports from the Demon monitoring station in Hell, Mara already had a pretty good idea where it had come from and what had caused it. A smirk formed on her mouth in glee as she tried to imagine both what chaos she had caused and what admiration for her deeds she would receive from her peers.  
  
She was distracted from her daydreams by Senbei, who had heard a pair of soldiers, probably as a means of protection for the people working on the site, and had motioned for his mistress to join him as he ducked out of the way of the window. The structure shook as one of the men leant up against the cabin, and as they were close enough to the thin walls, the demon-genie team were able to overhear their conversation.  
  
"Man, all this standing around just for some stupid piece of space rock. I hope they just pick it up and go somewhere else with it, like some military base somewhere, 'cos I don't wanna stand around here doing nothing all day."  
  
"I here ya. Got a light? I'm dying fer a cigarette."  
  
"Sure, hear ya go."  
  
The sound of a lighter being used could be heard as they each lit a cigarette and took a drag on them. Their conversation continued.  
  
"Hey, thanks, I needed that. But you know, I heard there's a rumour that they are gonna move it out of here as soon as they can, It's just that with all these people around here, and their cars blocking up the roads, It's too damn tricky to get a truck with a crane on it to pick it up."  
  
"Well, as sooner they can get the thing out of here, the better."  
  
The pair were interrupted by a pair of hurried footsteps, which stopped in front of where the soldiers were standing around. One of the two soldiers, the one with the lighter, stopped her and asked her for any identification. The newcomer, a female, spoke indignantly.  
  
"Look, here's my Nekomi Division pass, now I need to get to the place where they're examining the artefact."  
  
"Oh, that lump of volcano junk? Just head down the rows of tents and take the second left from the end of the blue one."  
  
"Thank you, and good day to you!"  
  
"You can't miss it, just get that thing out of here! We don't want to be left hanging around fer ever!" Shouted the soldier with the lighter after the receding footsteps. Judging by the fact that they didn't hear the woman's voice again, his request went unanswered.  
  
"Scientists, pah!" The other soldier spat at the ground. "They don't pay us enough to put up with this."  
  
"Well, let's get back to the patrol, don't wanna be caught slacking."  
  
The voices trailed off and the sounds of their footsteps faded into the distance before Mara felt that it was safe to come out of her hiding place, and by that time she had had enough space in which to plan her next move. With Senbei in tow and taking the directions they had managed to gather, Mara snuck into the mostly empty tent where they were holding their specimen, avoiding the guards that were at the only entrance. In the centre stood a object that could only be compare to a rounded obelisk, grey brown and partially scorched near the bottom. Making their way to the middle of the crater, Mara ran her hands over the arcane writing along the side, as if her hands and fingers translated it for her. In This instance, the technique was useless, the language was not instantly decipherable, despite the .  
  
Whatever it was, it reminded Mara of something that she had read about in the Demon archives about Heaven's technology and abilities and how they expressed themselves in the mortal realm, but for one reason or another, on account of her latest drinking/karaoke nights, she had forgotten exactly what it was. In any case, it was being clearly misused by these mortal scientists, regardless of their intentions or theories, and it was just too good a chance for an ambitious Demon like Mara to pass by. So, with Senbei's help, she managed to open up another jump gate to her mountain lair, and into relative safety with which to conduct further analysis of the object. 


	6. TToE: Chapter 5

Chapter 5:  
  
Time flies when you're having fun, so they say. When working to a deadline of a few weeks to create a scratch-built street racing bike for a motoring firm's amateur team, however, Time literally seemed to fly by, whilst Keiichi gathered a list of parts that he needed to buy based on shop inventory and the blueprints that he was simultaneously aiding Belldandy to create. Keiichi had every reason for being thankful to his goddess; otherwise he would easily work himself to death, or either go the same way under the stress of working to deadlines in any time he gained off-task, away from the slave-driver he called his boss. But at the same time, he genuinely put his heart into making his racer; he had not only Chihiro to please but both his and the Nekomi Tech Auto-Club's pride to carry on his shoulders. It was a challenge to his position as a head of that illustrious club that provided him with the ambition to put his all into creating a bike that would do the job, and with any luck, come up trumps.  
  
Belldandy too had slipped into her familiar role by providing a regular supply of caffeinated drinks to the pair, as well as giving an encouraging smile to Keiichi in the intervals that he lifted his head out of the boxes stacked inside the office or from the drawing board, poised over schematics and diagrams, straining to find the best solution to every problem that arose. Despite the fact that Belldandy could out-think most of the professors in Nekomi Tech, thanks to her divine powers, she tried desperately hard not to use her powers to help Keiichi, preferring to use cognition and logic instead. In her brief time as a minor System Operator for Yggdrasil, Belldandy had dealt with mathematical and spatial problems on a scale above and beyond those of a mortal such as her love, but understood the wealth of a skill such as flexibility when applied to problem solving in any situation. Which often lead to Keiichi being left for moments stunned and confused whilst trying to understand why Belldandy objected, although in her polite and cheerful way, why a frame Keiichi had designed could not withstand both the weight of the additional parts and a rider. This however, soon passed with every step they took in their bike's creation, and before long, they had amassed a shopping list of raw materials necessary to produce their bike, and with two weeks left, it provided enough time to make prototypes, test them and, where necessary, redesign parts of the bike according to test results.  
  
A chime sounded on the clock whilst Keiichi was going over the last few details with Belldandy, momentarily breaking his concentration as he glanced up at the wall towards the clock face. Upon reading the time, 1pm, he stretched lazily as he wondered whether or not to offer to take Belldandy out for a bite to eat somewhere in the Ginza district. In his opinion, they were at least allowed time off for lunch after their hard work and the evidence to prove it. This, coupled with the fact that Chihiro wasn't available at Whirlwind to argue with them when they did leave, persuaded Keiichi to ask Belldandy out for their limited time on break, pausing only to pick up their helmets and lock up behind himself. Hell, his salary wasn't bad, enough to make small gestures like this to Belldandy, and especially as he had some money left over from the harbour tour that they had missed on the previous day, so it wasn't going to put a dent in his finances for the week.  
  
So, after a short ride on Keiichi's trusty motorbike and sidecar, which took considerably less time to make than finding a parking space in the crowded Ginza streets, Keiichi was sitting at a table opposite Belldandy in a mall café, overlooking the bustling traffic below. If it wasn't for the glass, the sound of cars moving in time to the traffic lights would have interrupted the pair as they chatted over a couple of coffees, inferior however from the standard that Belldandy kept to, and a reasonably tasty lunch meal. It was rare that they ever had time together during working hours, and Keiichi wished that he could have a few more opportunities like this together, even if it was an exercise in talking more freely towards Belldandy, building his confidence with her, in surroundings that he was comfortable with.  
  
His musings were rudely interrupted by shouts and screams of fear coming from the entrance to the Mall a few shops away from where the pair were seated. Whilst parents grabbed their children quickly, jostling away from the crowd heading for alternate access to the streets outside, Belldandy was startled by events and joined Keiichi, who had risen and was actively looking above the thronging crowd for the source of the sudden commotion, his gaze falling on a space that had quickly cleared. Belldandy followed in the same direction towards the pair of large doors acting as entrances and exits to the mall as two figures marched towards the fountain at centre of the mall, apparently oblivious to the pair watching from the deserted shop front.  
  
"Ah! Humans are so easily scared witless, just blow something up and they scatter."  
  
There was no mistaking that voice; it was Mara, and both knew it. What did puzzle them, however, was that she was accompanied by a second figure that neither had recognised. He was of a seriously solid build and had the height of the average superstar basketball player, and the suit that he had on gave him the appearance of a bouncer at one of Nekomi's seedier adult nightclubs. Certainly not a guy to mess with, had been Keiichi's first analysis of him, which he whispered to Belldandy as they kept out of sight. Of course, the idea that he had been hired by Mara for additional protection against unexpected circumstances did occur to Belldandy, but Mara was fully capable of coping with the best of Earth's problems. At that moment, he was looking around, probably looking for anyone that might interfere with whatever they had in mind.  
  
"Perimeter clear, mistress."  
  
His voice was deep and silky, not unlike that of a Hollywood voice- over, and it's tone denoted that he had the utmost respect for Mara.  
  
"Good work, Golem. Now perhaps we can get what we came here for."  
  
Golem? Mused Belldandy inwardly as she poked her head around a corner to get a better look. Why did she call him Golem and why was it somehow relevant to Belldandy.?  
  
Mara had already seen something that caught her shifting eyes and turned from the centre of the Mall towards a popular computer store, the bodyguard following her. Upon grabbing a shopping trolley from the entrance, Mara entered and whilst the bodyguard stood watchdog in the front of broken doors, Mara filled her trolley with all the different pieces of equipment she needed, sometimes grumbling that they didn't have what she wanted. What Mara did want was a system that was something near to the specifications that she was used to. The problem she had was that her Demon salary didn't come near to what she required for that, and as she was living away from home, she had more bills to pay, leaving little money left over to get what she wanted. Pay cuts, apparently, were the reasons the Demon central gave, but now that she had this opportunity, she could not care less for the lack of money. She was making full use of her chance, taking whatever grabbed her fancy.  
  
For Keiichi, he was quite content to sit tight and hope that the trouble would blow over as long as he made himself as small as possible and thought about nice things. Like shiny motorbikes, for instance. As for Belldandy, who was packing the unearthly abilities of a Goddess, the sight of someone who looked better off in a wrestling arena against Hulk Hogan caused no fear to her. In fact, she was more interested in where he had come from, why he was called "Golem" and whether it had any connection with the strange events that had happened over the last 24 hours.  
  
"MARA! Show yourself, now!"  
  
The Bodyguard stiffened and looked around for the source of the voice, and his eyes fell on Belldandy as she approached, her shoes clacking on the polished tiles on the floor as she neared his impassive bulk. His initial reaction was to laugh inwardly at her frame; she would pose no match to him if it went down to a fistfight, but he reminded himself that men that were smaller than himself may present hidden dangers. In any case, he kept still; why exert effort when it was not needed?  
  
"Ha! I would have guessed you'd still be knocking around on Earth, Belldandy!"  
  
The Bodyguard moved courteously aside to let Mara back into the lobby, still pushing her laden trolley in front of her. He still kept closely behind her, the suit he wore acting as a black screen behind her, dwarfing Mara with his presence. Belldandy watched her put it to one side before turning to face her rival. Mara's mouth formed a cruel smile as she continued, her hands to her waist in an effort to show that she was the one with the dominance over the situation.  
  
"As long as you have him to worry about, Heaven can count themselves short one goddess for all their big system operations. In fact, because I knew Peorth could never tear you away from your beloved Keiichi, I predicted that we were destined to meet on Earth as soon as I made a move."  
  
Her tone became increasingly more cocky and after having made a small, unheard instruction to her bodyguard, he began to load her trolley of goods into a bag for ease of carrying. The weight of all the products had little influence on his ability to carry the load, another indicator of his strength.  
  
"Even if you are a goddess first class," she continued, jerking her thumb in the direction of the suit "Heaven isn't going to play much of a factor in anything I do for quite some time, I gather. Plus I have this guy here to help me out." The suit's occupant grunted in some sort of agreement and Mara's face changed to a playful smile, leaning over to whisper to her adversary.  
  
"He doesn't speak that much, he still has a lot to learn about the world he's been thrust into."  
  
So many questions flooded Belldandy as she assimilated all this new information; Where had he come from? What was he doing helping Mara break into a computer store? Just what was he capable of? How did Mara know of the accident in Heaven? Was she responsible? The only thing that she could think of was the fact that Mara was breaking and entering and she had to stop her. All other inquiries could follow afterwards.  
  
"Even if I am one goddess alone, as a goddess first class, I still must stop you."  
  
Mara chuckled and turned to check on the progress of her associate. He had already slung the bag over his shoulder and was awaiting further instruction from his mistress, all the time checking the current scenario in the case of an attack on Mara. That was his mission, nothing else mattered. Belldandy checked her stature to balance herself and raised her hands in preparation for summoning her spells and anti-demon protection programs, and instantly the impassive bulk of the bodyguard blocked the line of sight Belldandy only a few seconds ago had with her adversary. The air began to crackle with static and the air began to speed about as she power up a stasis lock program to capture Mara with; she needed answers, and if either Mara got away or was too unconscious to speak, the goddess would not be getting any more information from her. Besides that, it was against her nature to hurt someone unnecessarily, but in the case of a Demon, she allowed herself to make a slight exception to that rule. In the gap between summoning and releasing her attack, Belldandy's voice rose above the swishing air and spoke to the bodyguard, attempting to spare him the onslaught of her attack.  
  
"Stand down! I have no fight with you, only your master. Stand aside and be spared!"  
  
The bodyguard didn't flinch, instead stood still as a stone, grinning in anticipation of the attack. It was a silent mocking, daring her to even try to attack him. Undaunted, she repeated her offer;  
  
"In the name of Goddess Belldandy, first class, stand down!"  
  
Belldandy wondered whether this thing, this creature, whatever unearthly being it was, knew the meaning of fear and self- preservation and decided that unless he didn't move, she would have to go through the bodyguard to get to Mara. After a quick switch of offensive techniques, which came as instantly as a reflex action to a well-trained goddess first class, Belldandy selected a medium strength power bolt, as energy began to collect in the palms of her hands, incandescent light rays arching off them as the static in the air gathered. Her hands came together to combine the energy into one larger attack and as she felt the program algorithms calculating the strength of the attack, she drew her hands to her left side and prepared to "throw" it at her opponent. As Belldandy raised her head to judge the distance, she noticed that he had made no effort to run behind a defence of any kind, instead just to grimace and stand firm, with Mara watching behind his frame in interest at the attack. Perhaps she's confident in the abilities of her employee, she wondered as she felt a silent message in her brain tell her that she could use the energy that gathered in her hands.  
  
Keiichi, having crawled out from wherever hole he had the sense to hid in, had just popped his head up, after moving on his hands and knees, from behind an overturned table in the outside area that stood in a part of the Mall's flooring. The first thing he saw was Belldandy, ready to strike, presumably at the two figures on the opposite side of the Mall, illuminated in the bright glow as Belldandy took careful aim and released the fast moving energy ball from her fingers. The ball quickly changed it's shape after being released from the controlling influences of it's creator and became more streamlined into what could be more classed as an arrow, or a bolt. Both Belldandy and Keiichi followed it's path, as it took just over a second to reach it's target; in the chest area of the suited bodyguard. He braced for the impact just as Belldandy released it, and a second later, Belldandy confirmed that her aim was unchanged since her years in Goddess training school, despite developing the self control that meant that she had little opportunity to use her abilities.  
  
Mara's yell of terror that came naturally when she was faced with a goddess attack coming in her direction was dwarfed by the roar of the bodyguard as he absorbed the full force of a goddess bolt, as a cloud of steam and dust rose from the point of impact. Belldandy steadied herself as she readied herself for a counter-defensive technique, unsure of the effects against her as yet alien foe, watching for him to make a sudden underhand movement, but both Belldandy and Keiichi, having decided it was safe to pop up from after his hiding place, could see that the bodyguard was pre- occupied at the time, as he staggered over a little bit with both hands over his wound, his mouth gasping spastically for a breath of fresh air.  
  
As much as it pained Belldandy to see any creature in pain, she had to stay focused and hope that her warning shot would dissuade him from continuing in his actions, as such actions were futile. Compassion can be a double edged sword, Celestine had once told her, and now she understood with this example exactly what he had meant, not that she had ever envisaged becoming any type of warrior, favouring the hotline's switchboard instead. Keiichi, having decided that perhaps his size was just for show and that Belldandy had managed to pacify him, came up from behind Belldandy and stood to her right shoulder, watching in awe at the power just wreaked by his lovely goddess.  
  
"Jeez, wasn't that just a little harsh, Bell?"  
  
She turned her face to speak to him directly, although he kept his transfixed on the area of the Mall now enshrouded by smoke and steam, anxious to gain any indication of the status of the bodyguard. Just in case he decided to attack.  
  
"Not at all, I only wanted to persuade him to get out of the way, and that attack normally renders humans unconscious. He should get the message now, when he wakes up, that is."  
  
Keiichi watched Belldandy's face as she gave him a happy smile, confident that her treatment of the situation was proper, according to her own judgement, at least. In fact, it had been slightly cathartic; she had little real way to channel any anger she had felt in a physical way, and by focusing in something such as a battle, she was able to release any negative emotions with it; stress, anger, angst, jealousy and suchlike. But Belldandy shook her mind of such things; to revel in the destruction of others and of material objects was just the start on the road to eternal damnation - she would be no better than a demon, and then where would that place her?  
  
Their faces turned back to the smoky entrance to the computer store, and as the smoke cleared, they were able to see the results of Belldandy's actions. With one target out of the way, the idea was to progress onto Mara, and then afterwards, to try and repair some of the damage that was done. Fate, however, was to decide otherwise, despite the good intentions of the unnatural pair of goddess/mortal.  
  
"So, as you can see, my little experiment with viruses off after all. Get up, golem, NOW!"  
  
Mara's voice echoed in the air as the smoke cleared to admit the pair that were the object of Belldandy's power. Once, clear of the smoke, all present could see the state of the bodyguard, and the sight was one to cause Belldandy to give a slight gasp. Despite the force of the bolt, Belldandy's efforts had resulted only in the smouldering of his suit and an increase in his breathing, as if he had just swallowed a chilli pepper. That, and perhaps the irritation of the bodyguard, whose eyes glowed with murderous intent in retribution. At his mouth he bore a rigid grimace, determined to show that he was unaffected, and opened his mouth to taunt his oppressors.  
  
"You think that puny attack can stop me? Is that all you have to show for being a goddess first-class? That should be corrected to weakling, first class!"  
  
He ended with a loud guffaw at his own joke, a piece of punctuation to all that he had said up to that point. As he spoke, Belldandy noted a change in his voice, having pushed aside the initial shock and anger of the slur on her very existence as a being of Heaven. It was not as before; the silky tones replaced by a growling, almost feral-like, sound. Perhaps it was revealing of his true nature, and then maybe he was more brains than brawn. Of course, he did have justification, having been just sampled some of Heaven's power, and now had a score to settle. But that would come sooner or later, he told himself, these things are not best rushed.  
  
"But I will give you a chance, as you cast the first stone. Turn, run and don't cross my path again, and I will ignore you, for now. Stay and fight and you will be the first to witness my strength, and the first to suffer under it. And I have been waiting so long to flex my muscles. The choice is a simple one, goddess, do not disappoint me in foolish actions."  
  
He could read this goddess for the woman that she was. If she had any sense, she would do the right thing and run, but goddesses were all the same; their powers gave them a certain unmatched arrogance, despite the fact that he had not revealed his identity or the full extent of his abilities. But that, he told himself, would come as soon as this goddess made her choice. The outcome of his ultimatum was easy for him to predict, as Belldandy was eager to demonstrate that Hell hath no fury like a goddess scorned.  
  
"NEVER!" came the clear response, as Keiichi double-checked himself at Belldandy's response. Sure, she was a goddess and had the power of Heaven on her side, but at the same time their opponent had already sucked up one attack and suffered no real consequences for it. To a mere mortal interested in living to retirement age with perhaps some grandchildren, the bodyguard had tested Belldandy and found her lacking in ability, a clear indication that whatever he had up his sleeve would certainly be a considerable danger to both his goddess and himself.  
  
Grabbing her arm as she prepared to focus herself on a higher-level attack, Keiichi shook Belldandy's concentration for long enough for him to voice his opinions, mostly concerned for her safety, to her. For the most part, and totally out of character, Belldandy ignored him, confident that whatever she could produce above level three attacks would be enough to dissuade her foe from further conflict, and as soon as she got her arm free from Keiichi's grasp, all that Keiichi could do was stay a respectful distance as Belldandy continued to summon her angel. Incandescent light began to shine from her back as the beginnings of a pair of wings began to appear, shimmering and transparent to indicate the incomplete state of the summon. To complete the actions, she had to close her eyes in order to give it her full concentration, leaving her vulnerable to any counter-attack that either Mara or the bodyguard could produce. Assuming, however, that the bodyguard would try to absorb the attack in the same way that he had done before.  
  
There's a fine line between being absolutely sure and being over- confident, and Belldandy was on the other side of it.  
  
There will be blood spilt today, he murmured to himself upon sensing this opportunity and without further speaking to Mara or his immortal opponent, proceeded with his attack, bunching his hands into fists as he raised his arms into a position better for pounding the goddess into submission with good old muscle and bone. It had never failed him before, and, if all went according to his tactics, it would serve him well once more. Simultaneously, his leg muscles began to bunch up as he put more of his bodyweight into the floor, so that he good get more traction on the ground as he began to dash towards Belldandy, ignoring the wings that had fully formed out of her back and were spilling feathers all around as the wings extended to open at their fullest position, a good identification of the time he had left with which to execute his attack. The protection of Mara did not matter; he had assessed the boy that had been next to Belldandy and deemed him of low risk to Mara's security and in any case, any attack that was aimed in her direction would still have to go through him first.  
  
Keiichi, having taken cover behind a pillar, had had little time to watch in awe of Belldandy's angel, despite how he loved watching the beauty of it all. As soon as he had made sure his body was out of immediate sight, he swung his head around the side of the concrete to check the status of the battle unfolding. Whilst Belldandy's angel had nearly materialised and her attack seemed nearly ready, the light that she emitted was in stark contrast with the dark suit worn by the bodyguard and the shadow that was cast as he started to run the width of the Mall area, fists raised, ready to begin a low-sophisticated but crudely effective barrage of knuckle sandwiches in contrast with the pure energy of Heaven's fury, paired with Blessed Bell. His speed was unmatched by any human that Keiichi had ever seen on the campus' running track, and being a physics student, it didn't take him very long to estimate that Belldandy had perhaps only a couple of seconds left before he had the opportunity to begin the first strike. As usual, human nature took over instead of logical thought, and he called out in warning to her, hoping that she would have some vital milliseconds to react instead of continuing to power up her attack.  
  
Imagine, for one second, that the next sequence of events happened at a speed no mortal eye could comprehend, least of whom Keiichi Morisato, as he stood in awe at the scene unfolding, albeit at a blindingly fast rate, his jaw hanging down to let his mouth open wide. The Matrix has nothing on the speed at which these two fighters acted and reacted.  
  
In amongst the hissing and crackling of the air as energy built up around the goddess/angel combination, Belldandy hears a voice that she has trained herself to respond to; the sound of Keiichi's voice. All she had heard was his shout to her and she could divine little else about the nature of his cry to determine if he was in danger. She opened one eye, which was all she could manage without breaking her concentration and the power of the spell, and looked up in his general direction. He was not the first thing that came into her field of vision; instead, illuminated by their charging spell, Belldandy saw the bodyguard in his mad charge, his fists set to attack.  
  
Her eyes opened fully, taking in the full scale of the situation, her brain still pumped with Heaven's power, aiding her cognition as she decided what to do, despite being under psychological attack as he yelled his rage during his charge, shocking her as she reeled backward upon understanding that events were not under her control. As Blessed Bell uncoiled herself from the position she had once been whilst they powered up their attack, she understood almost immediately what must be done. Because of the natural link the pair shared as guardians of each other, Belldandy too felt what her angel had also decided. Their choice of reaction, given that they had processed all the elements in the equation of the scenario, was almost a reflex reaction to her, but if she had left it any later she would have been at his mercy.  
  
Utilising the power of her last spell and harnessing Blessed Bell's power also, Belldandy made the change from offensive to defensive mechanisms, and powered up an empowered shield that was projected from her chest area outward. From outside the shield, as Keiichi watched the bodyguard begin his assault, the spell had the effect of warping the view through it as if a soap bubble had been blown around her very body as it extended outwards. This side effect, however, did not manifest itself on the inside of that spell; instead, Belldandy had a close encounter with the right fist of her assailant as it surged forward in it's first strike, stopping only millimetres from the end of her nose as the "bubble-area" spread outwards. He had succeeded in making a bend around his right fist as the shield became bigger, and potentially weaker, and his free arm came to steady his other as he roared in anger that he could not connect his punch with Belldandy's body. His hand stayed in the same position, constantly pressing against the shield as he tried to break her concentration, whispering foul curses amongst his groans in pain.  
  
But she had luck, or more precisely, the power to prevent any further actions in her empowered state, and her precision with this particular spell meant that his arm was repelled by the growing force of the shield. It is at this point that Keiichi catches up with the chain of events, and as he watched, the force of the shield flung the over-confident bodyguard back towards his side of the makeshift arena, as Belldandy allowed herself a little respite by taking the level of the shield down a couple of notches and smiling to herself at her successful manoeuvre. A touch at her shoulder was all that she needed to know that Blessed Bell was returning, just in case Belldandy did not feel the slight shudder in her determined concentration to make sure that she controlled events, as her angel disappeared into her back and melded once more to become one with her goddess.  
  
"Not bad, goddess" panted the bodyguard, obviously still able to fight by the fact that he was still on two feet, his fingers bunching and contracting with rage, evidence to the fact that he was after some pure and refined revenge and/or retribution. He was no chauvinist, Mara would have certainly put him in his place with a few bolts if he was, but the fact that he lost the first punch in the bout to a woman had a damaging effect on his psyche.  
  
Belldandy, meanwhile, steadied herself from the expected shock of having to deal with the adverse reaction of the high level spell. It had been a while since she had used such a high level attack, but at the same time, she was fully competent to deal with it. Perhaps that was testimony to her nature as one of Heaven's purer goddesses, but the situation that Keiichi put her in didn't give her the usual opportunities to use her powers. Not that she ever wanted to use them extensively, that wasn't the point, being a carer more than a destroyer. Given the additional information she had gained from her attacker, she devised a new tactic for dealing with him; watch him in order to counter his next move as best possible, taking into account his emotional and physical status.  
  
He would have marched over the other side of the mall towards the stationary goddess, eager to settle the score, had Mara not held him back with an unexpected touch to his shoulder, forcing his body to twirl round to face her. His initial anger for being disturbed vanished from his face as he listened intently to Mara's lowered voice, of course inaudible to Belldandy as she stood motionless on the other side of the Mall. The bodyguard nodded a couple of times during this period, and grunted his approval. Taking this lull in the battle as his chance, Keiichi went over to Belldandy to try and talk to her, distracting her attention from the bodyguard, Mara and their secretive conversation.  
  
"Belldandy, I hear sirens in the streets outside. We need to end this now unless we get involved with the local police."  
  
Belldandy turned and nodded in submission; she couldn't jeopardise herself or Keiichi to be made to appear liable for all the damage that was done, even if she had to leave her opponents to get away with whatever they managed to steal. She turned back to Mara and the Bodyguard who were already halfway through a portal back to wherever Mara's lair happened to be, making good their escape, and gave the bodyguard the meanest glare, one that would put guilt and fear into the hearts of any criminal. The Bodyguard didn't seem to care, and replied with an upturned finger before making the leap and disappeared, followed soon after by Mara, complete with shopping trolley laden with her goods and an evil laugh that signified her glee at being able to get away. The portal disappeared soon afterwards, and all that was left as evidence to her even being there was a tell-tale scorch mark on the ground made by the portal energy and the dying echoes of her laugh, reverberating through the Mall and tainting the silence, interrupted only by the nearing sirens.  
  
Keiichi tugged anxiously at the sleeve of her jumper at the increasing volume of the sirens, eager to get out of the way of the incoming authorities. His bank balance had stretched to a meal at lunchtime with Belldandy, not paying for damages to a public building and a privately owned computer store.  
  
"I wish.I wish I could stay and repair the damage."  
  
"Sorry Bell, but we're gonna have to pass on that one. Besides, they probably have insurance to cover these things."  
  
But these particular acts probably came under "acts of Mara", Keiichi mused as an afterthought, and those aren't covered by any insurance company he knew of. Belldandy's body, which was once unresponsive as she stayed rooted to the spot whilst in thought, suddenly became responsive and followed Keiichi out of main area and out a back door, indicated as an emergency exit by the flashing green sign that was above the door.  
  
After that, it was a relatively simple matter of taking a couple of roads to skirt around a roadblock that had been set up in order to stop the general public from getting in or out of a possible terrorist situation. Which included the usual people and the ginza girls who just wanted to get a better view of proceedings now that things seemed to have quietened down. The bike, as Keiichi found, was intact and as they had left it, apart from a half-written parking ticket that was lying in the gutter besides the sidecar. Belldandy, after invoking the ticket's spirit marker, offered the explanation that the warden had been writing the ticket but had been frightened off the scene in an attempt to escape the explosion. Seeing as the ticket had only the name and number of the warden affixed to it, Keiichi decided to ignore it and threw it into a nearby litter bin before checking to see if Belldandy was seated in the sidecar.  
  
The bike started off with a roar, and before long, Keiichi had joined the main traffic into outer Nekomi, which had been accentuated by the delays caused by the police roadblocks, greeted by the familiarity of the smells and sounds of engines on the road that made Keiichi almost forget the encounter with Mara. It didn't take them as long as he had previously estimated, only about five minutes more, but it still meant that they were late getting back into the forecourt of Whirlwind's offices, giving Chihiro an opportunity she wasn't about to waste to reprimand Morisato for his tardiness. As it happens, she had already been waiting for the pair outside in a chair, and stood up to greet the pair with an annoyed tone.  
  
"And where do you think you've been all this time?" Keiichi unbuckled his helmet strap and took off his helmet, giving himself the chance to speak.  
  
"Only downtown for some lunch, but the traffic was really bad coming back. I think something might of happened, but we never got to know." He hoped that his explanation was enough as an excuse to both satisfy Chihiro that it wasn't their fault for their lateness.  
  
"Sure, whatever, as long as you can make up for it later on."  
  
"But, But, It was only ten minutes, boss!"  
  
"Time is money, Morisato, haven't I taught you that before? You could have lost us some customers"  
  
She flung out her arm as if to indicate the throngs of people waiting to be served by Whirlwind, but instead their collective gaze only fell on a couple of cats preening themselves on a nearby fence and a mother with her child in a pushchair. Hardly the hundreds of avid bikers and mechanics who desperately needed a spare part or a certain special screwdriver. Chihiro's face dropped and she stayed silent as Keiichi wondered who she was referring to, and then he began his argument again.  
  
"Yeah, but it wasn't our fault, and it was only a mere ten minutes - "  
  
"And it'll be fifteen by the time you're finished arguing with me, boy! Just get inside, will you? There's a few things I need to go over with you about the preliminary designs."  
  
"Yes boss" Keiichi muttered, having been bested by Chihiro for the second time in a day.  
  
She turned to the entrance to the office to enter whilst Keiichi dismounted his motorcycle, and as Keiichi watched her, she wheeled round suddenly on one foot to face his sidecar. As she began to speak, Keiichi's head turned to see what had grabbed her attention.  
  
"Belldandy, are you okay? You haven't even taken off your helmet yet."  
  
It was only then that Keiichi realised that Belldandy wasn't her normal self, and upon seeing her slumped figure resting against the side of the sidecar, he feared the worst, multiple theories rushing through his head at once as he stood rooted to the ground. He reasoned that perhaps something underhand had happened to her during the battle, or that she might be experiencing some of the fallout of the problems with Yggdrasil. Simpler still was that she was just recharging after exerting herself against the bodyguard, but even if he knew which of these theories were true, he still had to convince Chihiro that she was still alright, but without revealing exactly who or what Belldandy was.  
  
She removed Belldandy's helmet and revealed her slumbering face, her mouth open a little. Judging by the heaving of her jumper she was still breathing okay, which made both Chihiro and Keiichi relax a little, but still left them agitated. He hoped that it was just because she was asleep and needed to rest.  
  
As he carried her inside, he was still going over the potential ideas that he could come up with to convince Chihiro, and unfortunately the best thing that he could come up with involved something to do with Belldandy having slight narcolepsy. But he was glad to have any excuse to give her, as a bad excuse is better than no excuse at all, and as he gently laid her down on the couch in Whirlwind, he began his best attempt to fool his boss, but the look on her face told her that his attempts seemed to be having little effect.  
  
The things Keiichi went through just to stay with his goddess. 


End file.
